


From Me to You

by flightofthedragons



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, FOUND FAMILY SOULMATE AU, Families of Choice, Gen, NOT EXPLICITLY ROMANTIC, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-30
Updated: 2015-05-30
Packaged: 2018-04-01 11:46:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4018573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightofthedragons/pseuds/flightofthedragons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That's one of the flaws with the whole 'soulmate' thing. No one quite knows what the word means, except that people who speak each other's words have fates that are intertwined in some way. Nico's not sure how the idea got so tangled in romance- to be honest he's not sure all soulmates even <i>like </i>each other.</p><p>All Nico knows for certain is this: he's fourteen years old, and he has four sets of words.</p><p>None of them belong to Percy Jackson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Me to You

Eleven-year-old Nico di Angelo has four sets of words.

None of them belong to Percy Jackson.

Bianca finds her words from the mouth of a twelve year old goddess shortly after Percy and Thalia find them (and Annabeth, but he hadn't really gotten to know her before she fell and she's probably Percy's girlfriend and _definitely_ Percy's soulmate, even though the older boy has stopped answering his questions). He tries not to feel too disappointed when the words lining Bianca's bicep match the neat, fluid handwriting that each Hunter seems to possess. Bianca is older, after all, and it makes sense that she would meet her soulmate earlier than him.

He is slightly more disappointed when Artemis declares that he and Bianca have to be separated. Even though he already knows that none of the words along his skin belong to his sister, his heart breaks at the idea of splitting from her.

It breaks again when, after weeks of staying at Camp Half-Blood where he feels _wrong_ and out of place and certain that he has no soulmates near, Percy returns to him. Bianca never does.

Nico runs without so much as a consideration for the small Mythomagic figurine, runs until his lungs ache and his head feels dizzy and the skeletons aren't so close behind him (even though they'd fallen through that chasm- did _he_ do that?). Nico runs until his legs give out and his arms are tired and the ghosts have taught him all they can, until the boy is the Ghost King is too old for his age (in more ways than one).

He feels Bianca's absence every day as fiercely as the day she left. When she appears only for _Percy-_ who promises to look after Nico but won't look at him straight on- he feels a rage that he does not know what to do with. He keeps running, and vows not to look back. Eventually, he's been to the Underworld and back enough times to greet Cerberus like a friend and knows all the truth that Hades, lord of the Underworld, will give to his last remaining child.

Nico keeps running, long after the war has passed and Percy Jackson has declared him a traitor and a hero in the same week. Camp Half-Blood still holds no future for him; he knows that.

He is beginning to question if any place does.

Nico and Bianca had been born seventy years ago. Everyone alive when they would have lived is gone; Nico's soulmates are probably all long dead. It worked out for Bianca, who found herself among an immortal family (Nico still wishes, years later, that he could have stopped her. But what would he have done? She had, after all, found her words).

He wanders the Underworld, aware that he's got no one in the world above. (He's not, he assures himself numerous times, looking for his soulmates among the dead).

(Looking or not, he finds one).

The moment Nico meets Hazel Levesque, he knows he was right. His soulmates really are dead, the family he's meant to forge crumbled and gone. 

He knows nothing of this girl, this dark-skinned demigod from the same time as him (but such a very different place), yet when she opens her mouth and speaks to him, he finds he can't let her go.

**"I miss being alive."**

The words burn, dark and bold on his chest and he's never felt so relieved and so scared to have been right about something. He grabs Hazel's wrist and he drags her back to life. 

**"Come with me."**

His words are in small, hopeful curves on her wrist, right where he'd first grabbed her. Even if everyone else is dead, even if he'll never again meet anyone who wants him around, he'll at least have her.

Hazel is not like him. She needs somewhere to stay, a stable environment, so he brings her to Camp Jupiter. He can't stay here, though, and despite her protests Nico leaves as quickly as he arrived. Even so, he's careful to keep his promise to visit. Nico is determined not to lose another sister, to keep the only soulmate he's managed to find. 

And then he's in Tartarus, and the Underworld has never felt like Hell but _this_ is worse than anything his father could put in the Fields of Punishment. He wants to escape, wants to breathe, to leave this place and the door is within his sight within his grasp-

And then Nico knows, with absolute certainty, that he is dying.

He's been in the jar for five days now, and between that and the acrid burning of Tartarus he does not know when last he was able to breathe deeply.

Release does not lead to safety. Nico still cannot breathe, he cannot eat, he cannot sleep without being plagued by nightmares. Yet he has the strength to fight, to shadowtravel, to do whatever it takes to put distance between himself and the monsters.

(Hazel obviously isn't buying it, but there's nothing she can say to convince Nico to rest. Nor is there much she can say to get him to trust the others, even if they did save him. He tries, though. Really, he does.)

Frank Zhang is Hazel's soulmate, not Nico's, but Nico is selfishly thankful to him anyway. If one child taken out of time can find a place in this current world, maybe there is hope for him.

Nico can't tell any of this to Annabeth though, and when the girl asks him why he's grinning at the pair, Nico lies and says he doesn't understand the purpose behind soulmates.

This turns out to be a mistake, as Annabeth has apparently spent many nights pondering the scientific anomaly behind words.

"Where did the words come from? Did they exist before written language? The gods probably had some part in this- Aphrodite especially, although, Hera and Hestia both probably-"

At this point, Nico is not even certain to whom she is speaking. Leo clearly follows her better than Nico does, so he quietly slinks away from the conversation.

He does that a lot, these days: fades quietly away when everyone else is grouping up. It's complicated, with seven- so many sets of soulmates in one spot, yet there are too many of them for everyone to belong to everyone else. Throw dating into the mix and it gets downright chaotic.

That's one of the flaws with the whole 'soulmate' thing. No one quite knows what the word means (personally Nico thinks it's somewhat misleading), except that people who speak each other's words have fates that are intertwined in some way. Nico's not sure how the idea got so tangled in romance- to be honest he's not sure all soulmates even _like_ each other.

All Nico knows for certain is this: he's fourteen years old, and he has four sets of words.

One of them belongs to Hazel.

There are six other people on this ship.

Tartarus has taken from Nico, and he knows he can't really ever come back. He doesn't want Hazel to worry, though, and he certainly doesn't want the others to see him as weak, so he holds himself back rather than burdening the others.

It's not his fault when Percy falls, but Nico feels guilty anyway. He never told them about Tartarus, and now they're gone in the Hell he'd never wish upon his worst enemy. With Percy and Annabeth gone, there's no one left who even sort of knew him before. Nico uses the excuse to distance himself even more.

The seven are constantly grouping off, setting out in twos and threes to accomplish everything relevant to defeating Gaia. Nico is not one of them, not part of this rule. When he knows he needs to go after Diocletan's Scepter, he is ready to go alone.

Jason won't let him.

Nico would be more comfortable on his own. He doesn't know this blonde praetor any better than Jason knows him. They're trusting their lives to each other, essentially strangers.

Insistent as he is, Jason doesn't seem completely comfortable either. Ironically , that's probably the only thing that calms Nico right now.

All of that is before Eros (Cupid, he supposes, not that it makes much difference) shows up and starts firing arrows at them. Nico doesn't even know what's going on, but Jason can apparently see them and Nico suspects he's saved his life a few times. 

Eventually, Nico is forced to reveal his secrets- the ones he never imagined telling to anyone except maybe Hazel. Certainly he never meant to tell this Roman who is still, after all, a near stranger. After, he is drained and wants to run again, but he finds he has not the energy to get up on his own. Eros mocks Nico about bravery, happiness, love, but he also says something interesting.

"The gods gave you four soulmates for a reason, Nico. One of them falls under my domain."

The god's exit is as swift as his arrival had been, and Nico is left with the last person he wants to see. He avoids looking, eyes fixed on the ground so he won't see the disgust in Jason's.

 **"It's okay, Nico, I really understand."** he assures sympathetically. Nico freezes.

There shouldn't be anything special about those words; they're cliché, a repeatable phrase of comfort. And yet, Nico feels it this time. He knows somehow that the reassuring hum in Jason's voice matches the handwriting on his leg perfectly.

He also knows that Jason will never see those words, never want to.

What Nico wants is to disappear. He doesn't speak, afraid if he does his words might give something away. Afraid they might not. Jason is being nice to Nico, albeit overly cautious. Nico can't tell whether he's glad or disappointed, but it feels weird.

The thing is, they're not friends. And suddenly Jason is acting like he wants that to change, now that Nico has revealed this part of himself. The knowledge wasn't a gift, though. It festers like a raw wound left open and exposed and Jason keeps picking at it rather than just leaving it _alone._

The other thing is, Nico's not actively sure what Eros meant about his words, but he's got a pretty good idea. Annabeth would probably love to hear it, too, but Nico's too shaken to explain. 

Nico has gotten good at avoiding people. He uses this now to sidestep Jason on the Argo II. It's clear Jason's not willing to drop it, though. When he comes to lecture Nico about distancing himself again, Nico declares his intention to leave without having thought it to himself yet. It's too late to take the words back, even if the look on Jason's face makes him question himself.

In return for the boy's attempt at friendship, he offers Jason poison. And Jason takes it without hesitation. Chills flood Nico's body, running the length of his spine as the cup is taken from his fingers.

_One of them falls under my domain._

When Reyna brings him the opportunity to run even farther, Nico takes it gratefully. Reyna doesn't ask questions, doesn't know Nico any better than the seven, doesn't pretend to. She doesn't give soliloquies on the beauty of her soulmates or dating partners, either. After his brief encounter among the cacophonous seven, Reyna's silence comes as a welcome reprieve.

When she does speak, Nico feels more at ease than he does among those he's known longer. He is honored rather than annoyed to receive anything personal from her, but for the most part the two don't share much about their selves.

He's started fading (finally, physically), but hasn't told Reyna yet, when the two of them end up lying low (or as low as they can with a giant statue behind them) in order to not overextend themselves. Or, well, to minimally overextend themselves. Less than they already are. And Nico's fine, really, he's just losing his corporeal form. 

The statue will be safe. That's all that matters.

Reyna doesn't entirely agree, but she's Roman and understands duty. Right now, getting the Athena Parthenon to camp has to be more important than Nico's wellbeing. It strikes Nico how dissimilar the two praetors manage to be, but then it occurs to him that Jason's not really praetor anymore. 

And then he realizes that even though he's running away, Nico still thinks about Hazel and Jason every day. He's not even sure he's ever thought this much about Percy. Scared as he is, there can be no negative consequences to caring about people too far away to rebuke you, so Nico lets himself bask in the giddy rush that identifying his soulmates gives him.

Reyna is older than Nico. He's not sure by how much, but assumes at least two years. And if he lived thirteen years without any of his words being spoken, then found two of four within a year? Well, Nico doesn't know what's normal, but he suspects that there is no normal for demigods.

Hoping that since they're stranded there anyway it will seem like he's just trying to pass the time, he asks Reyna if she's ever met one of her own soulmates. Reyna takes the question at face value, not pondering his motives one way or another, and Nico once again finds himself grateful.

Her reply is vague and unanswering, but one thing becomes quite clear: Reyna does not place faith in the idea of soulmates. At least, not for her.

Nico is surprised, and at this point he thought nothing would surprise him. He hesitates- soulmates are, after all, rather personal- but she's not actively blocking him out, so Nico figures Reyna will tell him if he oversteps. 

Reyna is no clearer on her number of words than on whether they've been spoken. Still, she rushes to assure Nico she has them, just no faith. She seems sad, this powerful praetor who can loan her strength to others, and it occurs to Nico that she came out to Greece alone and if it weren't for him she'd be returning alone now. 

So he takes a risk.

He trusts her.

He doesn't mention Jason by name, just says he thinks he found one of his, thinks the other doesn't know and will never want to. He mentions Eros and the conversation (if it can be called that) they had. Reyna nods seriously, taking in his suggestion.

She guesses his fears with uncanny accuracy, asks if he thinks this soulmate who doesn't want to know is the one Eros mentioned. Nico doesn't answer, exactly, sidestepping the inquiry to get to the part he thinks matters.

"I have four sets of words," he says boldly. "I think… it may not be a coincidence."

"Four types of love," Reyna nods. "Storge, Philia, Agape, Eros."

Nico nods. His bond with Hazel obviously represents Storge, familial love. He's not really sure how he feels about being confined to an Eros type of love for one person, though. And he definitely doesn't know about the other two. He looks at Reyna again, and something occurs to him.

**"Are we soulmates?"**

Reyna hesitates like she's afraid to give an answer. In retrospect, it wasn't a great question seeing as she'd just declared her lack of faith in soulmates.

"We could be, I hope," she says, smiling slightly. And Nico learns of Aphrodite's words to the young praetor, of how 'no demigod can heal her heart.'

Including Nico. Including soulmates. Including herself.

Nico doesn't laugh or scoff, doesn't know what her heart needs healing from, but he thinks maybe Reyna's heart will heal on its own if she surrounds herself with friends. He thinks maybe soulmates can be a choice, not an unlikely relationship forced onto strangers.

He says as much and Reyna looks surprised, like she isn't quite sure how to have friends. But Nico is having none of it; he's been without friends before. Travelling across Europe with a satyr and a kid you can talk about soulmates with? Is not it.

Nico wonders if his twelve year old self would have believed him.

After that, the two hardly talk for days. Neither are much for personal heart-to-hearts; there's a wordless understanding that, while cathartic, that one was enough for a good long while.

After that, Nico is less afraid. Eros cannot intimidate him, cannot ever have as much reign over Nico's soulmates as Nico himself does.

He has four sets of words; one of them is Hazel's, one of them is Jason's.

No matter how many soulmates he has, one of them is Reyna.

He still doesn't tell her he's fading, though, because old habits die hard and just because he's meant to share a life with someone doesn't mean he's ready to let his walls down for them the moment it comes out. Reyna is shocked, but her frustration does not make Nico nearly as uncomfortable as Will Solace's doctorly nagging. 

When Will tells him not to disappear, that there are people at camp who care about him, Nico thinks of Jason. He remembers his seemingly endless patience in delivering a nearly congruent sentiment. Offhand, he wonders if babying him is how most people care. Onhand, it's really annoying.

When he helps defeat Gaia, Nico still isn't sure who he's doing it for. There's the fact that he lives on the same planet as everybody else, of course, but when it's all said and done Nico looks around camp. He sees chaos and havoc, he sees two different clans of demigods, clashing and merging and distilling, and he decides to stay.

(His last words to Octavian echo in his ears, sometimes. He saved the world and denied it to justify letting the prophet die. He's still not sure if he regrets it.)

After the war, Jason comes to find him. Nico wasn't expecting that, but he can't say he's surprised. He answers all of Jason's questions, informs the boy of his decision to stay, even lets himself be hugged without minding too much… and he still doesn't know how to tell him. And here Nico realizes that he's changed a lot in the past few days, and if Jason knew him even a little bit before (which is not entirely likely) then he certainly doesn't know him now. Nico doesn't really know him, either.

He evaluates him then, looks carefully at Jason who is looking back at him with genuine concern in his dead-tired eyes. Adamant that the choice is his, that he can accept this or let it go, Nico speaks up. 

Fact: they've been fighting for days (weeks, months) and everyone is dead tired.

Fact: Jason's worked harder than nearly everyone else, yet he's currently more worried about anyone else's wellbeing.

Fact: Nico wasn't even solid when this day started.

He looks up at Jason, who has no idea where this is going, and he struggles to find the words that make sense. Jason's not praetor anymore, and he doesn't need to be perfect for anybody. He obviously hasn't realized this yet, and Nico suddenly decides he should.

 **"I think we could fit together,"** he finally says, and Jason's eyes widen like he gets it.

Nico cuts off the older boy's rising excitement before it gets the chance to really leave the ground. After all, they don't know each other any better than they did the day before. What's the point in celebrating right now?

The two agree to meet up sometime and Jason moves on, leaving Nico alone in the Hades cabin. It's a shame, he thinks, that he finally has a sibling and she's not sleeping there with him. It almost makes him wish he were staying at Camp Jupiter instead, but he _is_ a Greek demigod. He belongs at Camp Half-Blood, even if he is only just now realizing that.

Talking to Hazel right now means talking to Reyna and Frank, which Nico finds he's okay with. They're slowly expanding their little family, and although Hazel is intimidated by the woman who serves as her praetor, she's quick to show affection for the girl who saved her brother. Nico has become so used to being the big brother and to worrying from afar, he's forgotten how capable Hazel is on her own. When she hugs him, he feels solid. 

Even knowing they have to leave him, Nico feels okay. He looks around the camp and decides.

Fourteen-year-old Nico Di Angelo has four sets of words.

One of them belongs to someone in camp, waiting to meet him.

**Author's Note:**

> I got sick of changing every soulmate au i saw in my head so that it didn't completely invalidate non-romantic love. went to nico because he's my default muse and realized halfway through that the greeks knew what was up.


End file.
